Apologies for the lack of updates over the last couple of weeks, posting took a bit of a hold due to buying my first home.  I’ve put down a deposit and am now looking to sign off on a contract and choose colours, options and whatever else needed.

If you have some great ways of saving money or tips on buying your first home, I’d love to hear them!

As for today’s offering, this lovely pasta dish is great for a warm day.  It’s quite easy to make as you can either buy your marinated deli pieces or make some roasted treats yourself.

Drizzle a little olive oil on top before serving and a garden salad as a side.

Makes:

• 2 serves

Ingredients:

• 1/2 capsicum - colouring your choice
• 0.25 onion
• 3-4 mushrooms, cut in half
• 5 pitted olives
• 4 slices of marinated artichokes
• 1 tsp garlic mince
• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbs white balsamic vinegar
• 2 serves cooked spaghetti, set aside and cooled off
• seasoning

Instructions:

1. On your stove with an open flame cut the capsicum and burn the skin totally.  Cover in a container and let sit for five minutes.
2. Mix the garlic and balsamic in a pot and warm lightly.
3. Mix in the mushrooms and onions and allow to soften.
4. Grab your capsicum and remove the blackened skin, slicing into bite size pieces.
5. Mix through all ingredients into the pot and drizzle a little olive oil through before seasoning to your liking and serving.

Recipes to come shortly, I’ve been a little pre-occupied with looking at houses to buy.  I’ve put in an application for a loan and hopefully will hear in the next few days what my limits are - wish me luck!  It’s definitely one of the biggest things you can do in your life!  And, I’m going into it on my own.  At the start, I wasn’t that interested in what I wanted, but the further you go into it, the further you realise that you do want certain things!

For those wondering what recipes are coming up, some of these include a workout pizza and easy enchiladas.  I’ve definitely not stopped cooking in the kitchen, and will post a new recipe later this week.

As for your favourite celebrity Chef, Jamie was your clear winner, with the foul-mouthed Gordon Ramsay second choice.  It’s funny, because I really don’t think I have a favourite myself.

There were a lot who chose “other” so I’d be interested hearing from you about who is your favourite?

• Jamie Oliver (25%, 13 Votes)
• Gordon Ramsay (21%, 11 Votes)
• Nigella Lawson (17%, 9 Votes)
• Other (15%, 8 Votes)
• Anthony Bourdain (12%, 6 Votes)
• Rachael Ray (6%, 3 Votes)
• Martha Stewart (4%, 2 Votes)
• Ainsley Harriot (0%, 0 Votes)

Current poll:

How many cookbooks do you own?

After successfully cooking up the Bhaji Burgers, I decided I would like to make an authentic vegie burger!  The result was great and I definitely will be swapping the recipe around in the future to try and match the Grill’d’s spectactular Tofu Protege.

Makes:

• 4 large burgers

Ingredients:

• 400 grams soy beans
• 1 packet steam vegetable packet, cooked
• salt
• white pepper
• 1 tsp garlic flakes
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 10 tbs besan flour
• pinch cumin
• 1 cup SR flour
• 2 tsp green curry paste
• 2 tsp coriander paste

Instructions:

1. Drain the soybeans and mash mixing in the salt and pepper.
2. Stir through the steamed vegetables.
3. Mix in the garlic flakes, paste, cumin, onion powder green curry paste and coriander paste.
4. Once the spices have been mixed through throughly, add the flour and form a dough.
5. Split the dough into four burgers and brown off the burgers in a pan.
6. Lower the heat, place on a lid and cook for five minutes before serving to your liking.

This weekend I’ve been spending my time looking at houses.  I’m nearly ready to buy my own house with a great kitchen and can’t wait.  Our Government has increased the first home buyer’s grants but it looks like it won’t do much good because houses are going up at the same time.  I’ll have to wait and see how much they do go up by…

As for cooking, this lovely pasta was an attempt of changing the mix on pesto.  So why not broccoli and almonds?  Let me tell you, it’s a great variety and a little milder than your average pesto varieties.  Chuck in some good quality olive oil, chilli and some parmesan, and you’ve got a spicy pesto ready to go!

Makes:

• 4 serves

Ingredients:

• 4 serves cooked pasta of your choice
• 2 stalks broccoli
• 1 tbs chilli paste (or to your heat)
• 1 tsp garlic mince
• 3 tbs parmesan cheese
• handful sliver of almonds
• salt
• cracked pepper
• good glug of good quality olive oil

Instructions:

1. Dry heat the almonds in a pot to brown.
2. Blitz the broccoli (raw), chilli, garlic, olive oil together in a blender.
3. Mix in your salt, pepper and parmesan.  Blitz again.
4. Add 3/4 of the almonds and blitz.
5. Pour the sauce into a pot and heat it up cooking your broccoli.
6. Mix in your cooked pasta and add the remaining almonds.
7. Serve with cracked pepper and parmesan on top.